


Come Knocking At My Window

by anerdandanofficer



Category: The Young and the Restless
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 02:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13730727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anerdandanofficer/pseuds/anerdandanofficer
Summary: The Valentine's Day Teriah content we deserved. Tessa visits Mariah on Valentine's Day.~“I uhm, I’m starting to feel a bit better, actually,” she cleared her throat, trying to clear the husk creeping into her voice again, and poured the boiling water into the mugs with an unsteady hand, “I just didn’t feel like going on Sharon and Faith’s mother daughter date on Valentine’s Day. Too cheesy for me.” When she turned back Tessa was nodding her head, tracing a pattern with her finger on the stone where her hands were resting.“So no Valentine's date then?” she didn’t look up as she said it, but afterwards she glanced across, as if to gauge Mariah’s reaction.“Tessa,” the way that Mariah said her name, dripping with exasperation, and desperation, made Tessa’s stomach twist. She clenched the bench under her fingers and winced.





	Come Knocking At My Window

**Author's Note:**

> This originally started out as me playing around with a second kiss prompt, and somehow became Tessa visiting Mariah on Valentine's Day. 
> 
> I started this before Valetine's but couldn't finish it in time, so consider this my belated present to you ;)

Mariah was deep into a Walking Dead marathon, curled up in more blankets that she was sure one household should own, with the lights turned out and the house quiet, when she heard the sound. The sharp rap, quick and then gone again, which caused her to scramble with a start and almost fall off of her bed.

 

Shaking her head, she paused the video on her laptop and looked around. Faith and Sharon were out on their mother/daughter Valentines day date (which she had refused to partake in despite the invitation, with the very convenient excuse of still being sick, she had given an over exaggerated cough as she explained this for emphasis), and the house was empty. She waited a moment, silence filling her ears in the way that silence at night feels so loud in it’s emptiness, especially out at the ranch. Her finger was sliding across the mouse pad again when the sound came for a second time and caused her to leap up, most of the blankets falling away into a pile on the floor at her feet. It was a loud, sharp tap of something hitting her bedroom window. She walked over and pulled back the curtains, telling herself it was just the wind and fearing it was a lot more, when the thick curtains parted and down on the ground was a woman, slight form in a dark hoodie, looking up at her. They waved with their free hand, the other holding a small collection of rocks, and shifted nervously (or perhaps just trying to keep warm) from one foot to the other. Mariah blinked down, unsure still whether to be relieved, confused or mildly concerned. Surely horror movie psychos don’t wave at you when caught throwing rocks at your window. The woman pulled back her hood, so that the moonlight caught her face, and Tessa was looking up at her with a sheepish smile.

 

Mariah felt her stomach both simultaneously ease and then plumet all over again for a whole new set of reasons. She pushed open the window (with some force, it creaked uncertainty with the movement, the first time she had ever opened them and probably the last). The chilly air hit her face with unexpected force as she leant out.

 

“Why on earth are you throwing rocks at my window, you weirdo?” she called down. Tessa’s cheeks, already kissed pink from the cold air, reddened and she waved her hand in a flurry of movement intended to very quickly communicate for Mariah to keep her voice down. The redhead laughed, and while amusing as it was to see Tessa looking so flustered, she tilted her head to one side and sighed.

 

“Everyone else is out, meet me at the front door. Like a _normal_ person.”

 

She paused mid step down the hall, detoured (quickly) via the bathroom to check her hair and then rolled her eyes at herself. By the time she reached the front door, Tessa was already waiting, somewhat freezing with her arms wrapped around herself and teeth chattering. Mariah had been going to say that whatever the musician wanted to say could be done on the doorstep, but one look at her and she felt her resolve waiver and melt away completely.

 

“Come inside,” she huffed, pulling the door all the way open and stepping aside, “I think you need to thaw out.” Tessa’s uncertain semi-smile blossomed into a grin and she thankfully crossed the threshold to stand awkwardly in the entry, as Mariah closed the door behind her.

 

“So, are you going to explain why you were throwing rocks at my window like a teenage boy?” Mariah quipped, leading the way into the kitchen and turning on the kettle without a glance behind her. Tessa followed wordlessly and leant against the island bench in the centre of the room, fidgeting with her hands as Mariah pulled out two mugs, two tea bags, and the milk.

 

“Well, I knew I wouldn’t exactly be welcome here,” she mumbled with a shrug, “I am pretty sure that Sharon hates me more than ever, not that I can blame her.” Under Mariah’s gaze she seemed to soften now, nodding her head slowly, taking the pointed look to get to the point somewhat faster.

 

“I heard you were sick,” she said matter-of-factly, sliding one arm out of her backpack strap to sling the bag around and un-do the zipper, “and uhm, I wanted to bring you a few things, to help speed along your recovery.” She began pulling items out of her bag; a DVD “the second is a sequel, what is the third called? Anyway, it’s the follow up to the sequel of those horribly good movies we love to hate”, a book “my favourite to read when I’m sick, it’s a loan” she could tell because the spine was well worn and the pages dog-eared, chocolate, throat lozenges. She bit her lip uncertainty when she found Mariah watching her quietly, no longer fussing with the tea or maintaining her ‘I’m still kind of pissed at you’ defences. Mariah with her hair down, falling softly around her shoulders. Mariah in comfy sweats and a jumper that sat loosely around her in soft folds. Mariah who looked gorgeous for someone who just crawled out of bed.

 

“It’s just a flu thing, it’s not a big deal,” Mariah finally responded, gaze travelling over the items now spilled across the island bench, things that would cheer Mariah up, things that only Tessa knew would make her feel better, thoughtful things, sweet things, the kind of things you would want your girlfriend to bring you if you were sick in bed on Valentine’s day. She frowned, and turned back to the tea, dispelling the thought with an irritated scrunch of her nose.

 

“I uhm, I’m starting to feel a bit better, actually,” she cleared her throat, trying to clear the husk creeping into her voice again, and poured the boiling water into the mugs with an unsteady hand, “I just didn’t feel like going on Sharon and Faith’s mother daughter date on Valentine’s Day. Too cheesy for me.” When she turned back Tessa was nodding her head, tracing a pattern with her finger on the stone where her hands were resting.

 

“So no Valentine's date then?” she didn’t look up as she said it, but afterwards she glanced across, as if to gauge Mariah’s reaction.

 

“ _Tessa,_ ” the way that Mariah said her name, dripping with exasperation, and desperation, made Tessa’s stomach twist. She clenched the bench under her fingers and winced.   
  
“Sorry, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to…” she groaned, failing to find the right words, her eyes coming up to meet Mariah’s again, “I just… I am trying to make things right Mariah, but I don’t know how. I can’t lose you, okay, so just, tell me what you want me to do, how I should act, or-” She watched Mariah’s face harden into a glare.

 

“I don’t want to control you, Tessa.”

 

Tessa shook her head, there she went again, putting her foot it in.

 

“I know, but I feel like, since the moment that we-” _kissed,_ but she was too scared to say it, to break their unspoken treaty, and instead tilted her head just slightly to the left, eyes looking at Mariah in a way that made her feel like she was on fire, “from then on, there was no right thing to do, no matter what, I was bound to fuck everything up just like I always do. And I get that I handled it the wrong way, I should have been open and honest from the start, but I was terrified of losing the only good things that I have ever had. I get that I stopped us from being anything more when I screwed it all up, but, I am honestly trying to be your friend if that is all that I can have, and I can’t even seem to get _that_ right.” Mariah blinked, turned away for a moment, carding a hand through her hair. Tessa watched the way her fingers trailed through her auburn locks, swallowing down the thoughts that pushed to the surface of her mind. When Mariah turned back her eyes were gentler, she stepped towards the bench and came to a stop where her hands rested on the cold stone top a hair's breadth from Tessa’s.

 

“Tessa, what do you want from me? Take my feelings and Noah’s out of the equation, forget about what I said at Crimson lights, forget about the possible consequences, what do _you_ want?”

 

Tessa stared at her, eyes wide in the wake of Mariah’s words, her demand. The answer was on the tip of her tongue, but she held it back, took a shaking breath. What were words now? What good had they done? Mariah had been right last time, that talking about it all had done nothing, had changed nothing, and what would they change now? How was she to convince Mariah to believe her, to trust in what she said, after everything she had done?

 

She could feel the heat of Mariah’s fingers, so close, and yet just not touching. The warmth ghosted her hand, like a promise unfulfilled, and she took a deep breath, forced herself to look Mariah in the eye again, those gorgeous eyes, those eyes that made her want to be better.

 

She leaned forward, pushed onto the balls of her feet, hand gripping the countertop as she leant across the space between them, the counter corner that separated them. She could hear the hitch in Mariah’s breath, watched her eyelids flutter closed the soft, sweet way they had that day in San Francisco, expectantly, and yet still surprised when she felt Tessa’s hand cup her cheek, foreheads pressed gently in a moment of baited breath, their mouths inches apart.

 

She grazed Mariah’s lips tentatively with her own, drew a small gulp from the redhead before she pushed forwards, her hips pressed against the bench between them as she captured Mariah’s mouth fully in her own. This kiss was soft, at first, like the one before. Tessa caressed Mariah’s cheek softly, thumb grazing along the line of her cheek bone, felt the heat of her breath as they pulled apart, only for Mariah to pull her back in, more insistently this time. They were all heat and hands and breath and lips, and Tessa knew that everything was so fragile, she should be treading carefully, tip-toing into this, cautious and thoughtful. But she was all hormones right now. She was adoration and admiration for a woman that set her on fire. She ran her tongue gently along Mariah’s bottom lip, and felt Mariah’s mouth open hungrily, the kiss deepening to one that could not continue across a counter.

 

She felt Mariah’s hand pull at the front of her jacket, felt herself stumble around, breaking contact for a moment, eyes meeting in the dark kitchen as she stood in front of Mariah, pinned her against the counter.

 

“ _You_ ,” she whispered, before kissing her again, the answer to her earlier question. Her hands tangled in Mariah’s hair, she felt the redhead’s hands on her waist, at the bottom of her jumper. She gasped softly at the warmth of fingers sliding beneath her shirt, skirting the cool skin of her stomach along the waistband of her jeans.

 

She should have been telling Mariah that it was her, that is was always her. Deep down, as much as she wished to deny it at one point or more, as much as she tried to fight it, it is undeniable. _Mariah is undeniable_.

 

But her mouth was far too busy with other things, with learning every inch of Mariah’s mouth, the shape her her bottom lip between Tessa’s, the soft corners of her mouth, the length of her tongue, her taste, her scent (tonight that familiar sweet jasmine from her shampoo mixed with raspberry cough syrup on her breath). Tessa let her hands trail down Mariah’s neck, trace her collar bones, drift feather light down her sides. Without thinking she had wrapped her hands around Mariah’s upper thighs, and broke apart their kiss just long enough to hoist the slightly shorter woman up onto the counter, so that Tessa could stand between her thighs, so that this time it was Mariah leaning down to her, biting her bottom lip as she slipped her arms around Tessa’s neck, rubbed her thumb over Tessa’s bottom lip breathlessly before capturing it in her mouth.

 

Mariah sighed into her mouth, against her lips.This moment she had thought about far more than she would admit to anyone, dreamt about and pondered, what would a second kiss with Tessa be like? A chaste Christmas peck beneath mistletoe, awkward and sweet, and leaving her wanting for more? Or a fiery kiss, mid argument, Tessa grabbing her by the shoulders and planting a kiss on her mouth and cutting off her sentence, hands everywhere and frustration mixing with lust? This was a sort of in-between. Tessa was passionate, but soft, making her skin burn but also her stomach flutter nervously.

 

She felt Tessa press further into her, the other woman pulling her forward on the counter so that Tessa’s middle was pressing against her in a way that made Mariah let a soft moan escape her lips into Tessa’s mouth. She felt herself flush with embarrassment, until Tessa pulled back for a moment, looked up at her, eyes dark with want and teeth kneading at her bottom lip nervously.

 

“ _Mariah_ ,” she hummed, gently squeezing Mariah’s hips in her hands, and Mariah felt herself swallow nervously, waiting with baited breath for the end of that sentence, when they both heard the jingle of keys in the front door, Faith’s tinkerbell laugh through the wood as the handle turned.

 

“What do we do?” Tessa whispered, eyes wide, stepping back as Mariah jumped down from the bench, brushing back her messy hair and tugging at her crinkled jumper.

 

“Uhm, uhm, back door?” she pointed to the door behind her that led out to the back of the house, then felt guilty for trying to shove Tessa out into the cold after they had been two seconds from-, “Or, you could just say you were dropping over some stuff because I was sick?” she shrugged helplessly.

 

“Which I was, so, no lying either. Technically.” Tessa tacked on hopefully, and Mariah bit back a smile, shaking her head. Before they could make a firm decision either way, the sound of small feet came echoing down the hall before Faith burst into the kitchen, obviously hyped up on too much sugar, smiling to see Mariah before she spotted Tessa and her expression fell into one of confusion.

 

“Oh, hi.” Tessa had to bite back the guilt that turned her stomach, and offered a weak smile.

 

“Hi Faith.”

 

“Faith honey, did you give Mariah her-” Sharon paused, hand resting on Faith’s shoulder as she stopped behind her, her eyes travelling between Tessa and Mariah, and the items on the bench, “You have a visitor, on Valentine’s day, how _nice_.” Her tonation of the word nice made it clear even to the eleven year old that she did not mean nice at all. Faith glanced between them all, and looked to Mariah, who gave her a shrug.

 

“What have you got for me, squirt?”

 

“A lindt chocolate heart, for valentine’s day,” her little sister extended the gift, slightly soft from being clutched by warm hands so tightly, and Mariah took the heart and pulled the blonde into a tight hug.

 

“Thank you Faith,” she released her, and Faith gave her a wide grin, “why don’t you go wash up for bed, huh?”

 

Mariah could feel her mother’s disapproving look as Faith ran upstairs, and fidgeted with the chocolate nervously.

 

“Well, I was just leaving, actually,” Tessa moved towards her unzipped backpack on the counter, closing it and slipping the straps back on, “I just wanted to see how Mariah was feeling, because she was sick.” The half hearted excuse almost wore on Sharon’s sympathies, who gave a dubious nod.

 

“Right, well then, I’ll let you walk Tessa out,” she spoke directly to Mariah only, pointedly so, and Mariah watched Tessa’s shoulders slump somewhat. She gave her mother a nod, tight lipped smile, as she led the way back to the front door and Tessa trudged behind her. The air outside was colder, if possible, but Mariah stepped out anyway, to give themselves some privacy, and closed the door behind her. Tessa was shifting and fidgeting nervously, licking her cold lips as she waited for Mariah to speak.

 

“So-”  
“Well-”

 

They both spoke in unison, stopped, and then broke into a smile. Tessa loved that smile, that shared secret amusement between them, the way it felt like they were the only two in the world when they shared a look like that, the visceral connection she felt between them in that moment. Then the snow crunched underfoot, breaking the silence, and Tessa reached out a shaking hand, to brush Mariah’s own, a touch that asked permission.

 

“I hope I haven’t ruined everything again,” Tessa prodded nervously, and Mariah could feel her fear in the quake of her fingers as they interlinked with hers in the space between them, the gaping cold chasm between their hot bodies. She offered Tessa a soft smile, tugged her slightly forward in the dark until she could press a feather light kiss against her lips.

 

“I think that we should _talk_ more tomorrow.” Tessa’s slightly surprised mouth morphed into a grin, and she nodded quickly, squeezing Mariah’s hand.

 

“Sounds like a date, Copeland,” she teased gently, taking a step back and loosening her grip on Mariah’s hand so that her fingers trailed softly down the redhead’s palm and along the sensitive underside of her fingers before letting go, eliciting a shiver and a rueful shake of Mariah’s head.

 

“Happy Valentine’s Day Tess.”


End file.
